Scary Dreams Are Made Of These
by DarknessSlayer
Summary: A woman was found in bed, dead. She was beaten, but yet, it looked like she died sleeping calmly. Angel thinks its supernatural. Can Angel figure out what's going on while the law threatens him and the thought of having to see his Sunnydale friends again


Dark blankets swiftly covered the sky, illuminated by the bright, twinkling stars. The wind rustled the leaves on the green, moist earth with each occasional blow. The buildings in the City of Angels cast shadows upon the dirty streets, along with the empty alleyways. The city was quiet and peaceful for some, but a horrific nightmare for the others. A horiffic nightmare for a creature that the world knew as Angel, once the Scourge of Europe, long ago in the 1700's. A vampire cursed with a soul, damned to never have true happiness again, all because of a gypsy tribe. If he did, he would return to his days of slaughtering and he would be his worst enemy, the other side of himself. He would be the legendary vampire Angelus once again and he would make the world bleed. He would laugh as it happened, laugh as the dead bodies dropped to the ground, and laugh as he felt no remorse for another victim. Angelus. A killer. The worst. Angel knew that he could not return to his former self. He couldn't let another life that he'd taken guilt his already guilty concious.

All of this for feeding upon a gypsy woman.

Cursed with an innocent soul.

Cursed to spend the rest of his exsistance full of regret and pain.

Cursed with the worst thing in the world: loneliness.

He would be cursed until the Powers-That-Be said otherwise. Until a stake found his dead, cold, unbeating heart in his chest. Until he was tortured in hell for the innocent lives of humans that he had taken. Or, worst of all, something or someone decided to take his soul and return him to Angelus. Returning him to the darkest time in his un-life. He wouldn't let that happen. All he had to do, was continue on the path of redemption and well, hopefully Angelus free. It was only until the world ended, which wouldn't be that far away, knowing the demons of the world. But, he knew, if he could keep the world from ending, he'd feel better about himself. He'd feel content. He'd feel alive again. Boy, did he want to feel alive again...

Angel's dark eyes peered down onto the city below, scanning over the crowd of people standing in the street. People of different colors and sizes. Some tall, some short. Some skinny, some chubbier. Different hair styles. Orange color hair to even black colored hair. All of them differed in some sort of way. He broke his thoughts off of the people, the red and blue lights reflecting off his eyes. The red and blue lights from the ambulences and LAPD police cars. The number of police officers from the LAPD told him something happened and Angel, well, he was determined to find out what. The event supernatural or not.

Angel turned away from the view, taking a few slow steps to the edge of the building top, looking into the emptiness below. He said nothing, didn't even make a noise before he stepped forward again and dropped. Angel fell swiftly, his trenchcoat flowing steadily behind him, making him look like some kind of dark angel. The Dark Angel. That's when the sound echoed in his ears.

**_CLANK!_**

He landed safely on a large dumpster, hearing the squeaks of the alleyway rats as they scurried away from the vampire's dropzone. Quickly, he leaped off the dumpster, his black boots thudding as they hit the concrete gound. Immediately, he could see the broken glass from beer bottles, ripped newspapers, and event bent cans scattered across the ground. He could even smell the filth as well. The filth from the dumpster and even the smell of rat blood. He would always know the smell of rat's blood. For a long time that was all he had eaten. He pittied himself when remembering those days he spent time doing nothing but moping and brooding. Then there was Whistler. The demon that set him on the right path that he needed to take. The path of redemption.

Angel walked down the street, toward the group of conversing people he'd seen ontop of the building before. The closer he got to the scene, the clearer the conversations had become. He heard small whispers of:

"Wow."

"Beaten?"

"In her sleep?"

Angel pushed through the crowd of people softly, whispering apologies as he bumped into others. Then, as soon as he reached the front of the crowd, his eyes caught the sight of two paramedics, pushing a stretcher out of the entrance of the nearest building. On that stretcher was a large gray bag. A body bad, Angel was sure. He'd seen a lot in his time. Inside, must've been the victim. Whoever the victim was.

Angel let his eyes peer around the crime scene again. He could still hear the whispers behind him, aching to get away from the voices. Which he did, slipping past the bright yellow tape that read "**_DO NOT CROSS" _**Even after reading the words, they would not stop him. Well, those words...

"Hey! You! Don't cross that tape!"

Angel sighed and spun around to see an LAPD officer standing there, watching him. This was the type of officer who had a great build, the kind of cop who spends their time eating at Doughnut shops in the area. But, the most recognizable thing to Angel was the man's hair, curls pushing out from the man's police uniform hat. It was as orangish-yellow as the sun. Or, what Angel had remembered of it.

"Who're you!" The officer asked, approaching Angel with his hands clentching his police belt.

Angel was silent, looking the cop up and down with his brown eyes. How tough the police man attempted to come off didn't bother the vampire at all. Except how he found it quite urking. After this long hesitation, he decided to speak back, "Detective Angel."

"Angel, eh?"

"Detective Angel."

"Well, got a badge _Detective Angel?_" Curly asked, a stern look on his face and a 'I'm-Better-Than-You' kind of voice.

"Hey, Gerald. Don't worry, I know him."

Hearing this new voice, Angel looked over his shoulder, the form of a woman approaching. A typical blonde woman, beautiful blue eyes and a nice shaped body. A gray jacket and blue jeans. Except, the only thing that he found off, was how the only emotion show in the woman's features was anger. That's how Angel knew it was no one other than Kate. Kate Lockley. Another LAPD police worker, yet, this one knew what he was and what he did.

"Angel? Why're you here?" Kate asked, moving toward the vampire with a soul. She was treating him as if he wre in the station for questioning. All needed to top off the scene was a big light, a man smoking a cigarette, and a glass case.

"Saw a group of people, ambulance lights, your guys. Thought, 'hey, why not check it out?'" Angel replied, arms slowly moving to cross over his chest.

Kate shook her head and let out a low sigh, her blue eyes never leaving the form of Angel, "I doubt this is the type of problem...you deal with."

Angel found himself silent, not because he had nothing to say, but because Gerald aka Curly was watching him like a hawk. He gave Curly a quick look before his eyes returned to Kate, sending her one of those 'Get-Him-Outta-Here' kind of looks.

"Can you...?"

Kate looked over at Gerald, who stood there, looking dumbfounded. She nodded her head at her officer in dismissal. The cop gave his boss a quick glance before he sauntered off.

Angel was quick to talk as soon as Curly was gone, getting straight back to the point, "And how do you know that?" Angel finally asked, "Also, what happened?"

"Can't release that. It's confidential, police information." Kate replied back to him, a smug look on her features.

Angel was silent, staring Kate down like she'd been the worst person in the world. His eyes shifted into nothing other than an angry glare, his arms moving tighter around his chest.

Kate then sighed yet again, knowing that she couldn't help but tell, "Martha Dunam, 52, was found dead in her bed by her gandson when he came to check in on her. She looked abused. Bruises. Cuts. No sign of strangalation. Wet sent her to the mogue for an autopsy."

"So you're telling me a woman was found dead in bed, with cuts and bruises, yet nothing to explain it, not my kind of problem, Kate?"

"Until those autopsy reports come back, nothing can be proved, Angel. She was old. Possibly died by a heart attack. We don't know." Kate frowned.

Angel shook his head, looking at Kate puzzledly with an arched brow, "Yet she had cuts and bruises?"

Kate was silent because she herself had no idea why the woman looked beaten up. But, Angel had gotten her again. He'd gotten to the point. He was bound to take another case from her, which just made her angry. Made her feel like he who wasn't even a _real _detective was better than her.

"Angel. You show up on the scene...or at anything place that involves this case...I'll..." Kate began.

Angel turned on the heel of his boot, slowly walking toward the yellow boundry tape. He'd heard enough of Kate's threats already and he really didn't want to hear another one.

"Have you arrested." She finished in a harsh tone.

Angel then stopped dead in his tracks, literally, a foot from the yellow tape. He did not look back at the blonde officer and he was silent for no more than a few seconds.

"I'd like to see you try."

With those 5 words, Angel slipped under the yellow tape and escaped into the crowd of people, leaving Kate Lockely, angry and confused.

* * *

"Another down, your greatness."

The room as dark, the only light coming off from the small torches on the old, dusty, brick walls. The room had also been rather empty, other than a table and a few cloaked figures standing near the walls. They were all the same size and they all acted the same. They didn't talk, nor did they move their bodies.

"I know, Semaj. I felt the energy transfer from our last...we're almost there." A sudden spoke. The voice was rough, deep, and slightly demonic.

The voice came from the corner of the dark room, the only thing seen in the corner were lime green eyes, flickering with the help of the torches. Near the corner of the room there laid a red pillow, in the middle, a black, glowing orb.

"There's only one problem, Semaj."

"Wha-wha- what's that my greatness?" The lacky, Semaj replied shakily, his voice full of fear.

"We need greater power. Strong humans. Vampires. Slayers. We need them all..."


End file.
